THERE will be no compromise in the war against drugs despite arguments by some quarters that Singapore should follow the steps of liberal societies that have given up trying to stop drug abuse.

These societies now engage in harm reduction and try to minimise the dangers of drug abuse by offering clean needles to addicts to 'shoot up' safely and even provide substitute drugs.

Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng warned this will 'unravel the relatively drug-free society we have today'.

He said that although the authorities would continue to help addicts who are willing to take responsibility for their lives to overcome their addiction, the approach would be zero tolerance.

The problem of drug abuse was raised by Dr Teo Ho Pin (MP for Bukit Panjang), Dr Fatimah Lateef (Marine Parade GRC) and Non-Constituency MP Sylvia Lim.

Last year, 2,166 drug abusers were arrested - up from 1,218 in 2006.

The increase was largely attributed to Subutex and heroin users with fewer arrests for abusers of Ketamine, cannabis and Erimin-5. Subutex, which was introduced as a replacement drug to mainly heroin addicts in 2002, was banned in April 2006.

Since then, some Subutex users had moved back to heroin and 285 were arrested last year.

Mr Wong said that the enhanced punishment for habitual drug abusers on their third drug conviction has proved effective.

Since its introduction in 1998, more than 5,000 people have been through it and the relapse rate had fallen from a high of 50 per cent in 1997 to 10 per cent now.